10-28-2008, 05:20 PM
The whole enterprise was destined to blow up from the start.
Anyone who claims they didn't know what they were signing or that they didn't understand the basic tenets of mortgage finance is a bald-faced liar.
I am particularly calling out the older generation -- those who had already paid off their first mortgages decades ago and decided (I'll concede a few were 'coerced') to double-down at the home equity craps table.
They came up in a time when the point of getting a mortgage was to eventually pay it off.
They KNEW that these trick, neg-am, exploding ARM, optional payment nonsense was just kicking cans down the road. The fact is they didn't care. Slick salesmen, or their kids, or advertising convinced them that "it's different this time. You can spend all this money now, only a fool would wait."
The whole country has been living in a debt-fueled fantasy world for twenty-five (or more) odd years.
The time for repayment will eventually arrive. All we're doing with these bailouts is pushing the day of reckoning off onto our kids and grandkids, and paying the same people who failed us in the process.
Anyone who claims they didn't know what they were signing or that they didn't understand the basic tenets of mortgage finance is a bald-faced liar.
I am particularly calling out the older generation -- those who had already paid off their first mortgages decades ago and decided (I'll concede a few were 'coerced') to double-down at the home equity craps table.
They came up in a time when the point of getting a mortgage was to eventually pay it off.
They KNEW that these trick, neg-am, exploding ARM, optional payment nonsense was just kicking cans down the road. The fact is they didn't care. Slick salesmen, or their kids, or advertising convinced them that "it's different this time. You can spend all this money now, only a fool would wait."
The whole country has been living in a debt-fueled fantasy world for twenty-five (or more) odd years.
The time for repayment will eventually arrive. All we're doing with these bailouts is pushing the day of reckoning off onto our kids and grandkids, and paying the same people who failed us in the process.